Fisker Automotive Running Out of Time and Funds?

Earlier this month, electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive laid off around 65 workers and it became public knowledge that they were renegotiating loan details with the US Department of Energy.

Now analysts (or at least one analyst) are predicting the inevitable death of Fisker as a company, especially since Fisker apparently did not meet certain loan conditions due to production delays. Up until now, Fisker has received less than $200-million of its $529-million loan from the DOE, and is currently negotiating for some if not all of the remaining balance of the loan.

But with the Obama Administration facing political pressure to reduce spending, there’s a real good chance Fisker will never see the remaining $336-million or so. And without that funding, Fisker could go under and perhaps along with it, A123 Systems, its lithium-ion battery manufacturer.

Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher has played down the issue saying that Fisker is simply enduring a “bump in the road.” Ormisher told The Wall Street Journal that the Karma hasn’t been impacted and Fisker has delivered about 250 vehicles and that the remaining DOE funds were strictly to help produce the Project Nina vehicle.

In a statement released around the same time as the lay offs were done, Fisker said that they were pursuing “alternative funding sources” and that they had raised $260-million in equity in late 2011. But according to the Orange County Register, the newspaper local to Fisker Automotive’s headquarters, Daniel Wray is suing Fisker Automotive for fraud. An investor into the electric automaker, Wray claims that he had invested $210,000 and that Fisker demanded another $84,000 or he’d lose the rights he gained from the original stock purchase.